Strictly Come Dancing: Week 12 and Results

I'm devestated to see Austin and Erin leave on Sunday. Poor Erin yesterday, who'd ever think she'd actually cry on TV? Weird and sad. :( Part of me is worried that she's not planning on coming back next year and in fact is going to get married and have children instead. Of course there is speculation that the producers are so pleased with the new pros, that some of the older pros might not be asked back next year.

So we are left with Rachel - good but bland, Tom - managing to be both dull and annoing, and Lisa, who is alright, but is partnered with Brendan who showed us this weekend that the whole reformed act was just an act. And to think he fooled me into thinking he had turned into a decent guy. On balance I think I'd like Rachel to win. She seems the best and I like Vincent.

But overall, I've found this series has been very disappointing. Lots of very uninteresting celebrities, for some reason. I think they've stretched it out too long as well. Sigh. I'm already speculating which celebs we could have next year.

Strictly Come Dancing Week 8 and Results

I'm late with this. It's been that sort of week.


I have a great respect for Austin for keeping his Mum's anniversary private, rather than, as usually happens, letting the entire public know in the week leading up to it. Not that I suspect people of deliberately trying to get sympathy votes, but, you know. It was a nice change. I didn't think his rumba was that bad, overall, although definately worse than his usual dancing.

I think it is probably time John left the competition. After six years the judges have yet to understand that the more they berate and ridicule a contestent the more the public will vote for them. (Something Brown could remember for the next election?) Mostly, you need to make their dance as unforgettable as possible. If I were a judge I'd have said something fairly bland, like "nice storytelling, weak on technique," in a faintly bored, next-dance-please voice.

I was shocked that Jodie wasn't in the bottom two - awful, awful samba. I liked Tom's dance, especially his leaping around, although I don't understand the general fuss about him. I mean, I don't normally understand when the female population of Great Britian goes a bit mental for one of the male contestants, but it is doubly so for Tom. (Although, did you hear Kate Garraway and her comment to Jason Donovan, "he's not meant to turn you on, he's meant to turn us on." Oh, fuck off with your hetronormative, ignorant attitude.)

Cherie was beautiful, and danced beautifully too. I was even won over by Lisa's dance, and even if she turned out to be a giddy slash fangirl. (Seriously, if she was on the internet, she'd be one of those people who typed all in lowercase and txt language and used six million exclamation points at the end of every sentence.)

I thought Heather's tango was her best dance, ditto for Christine and Matthew's brilliant jive. I though Rachel's dance was okay, but I find her performance completely boring. Apparently the rest of the UK agrees with me.


It Takes Two needs to stop with the insane VTs. Today we had the composite dancer, and the crazy marriage thing (I worried about Nicole, though probably she doesn't care) and yesterday instead of amusing training clips at the end, we got some poorly made song vid. Less of that!

It Takes Two: Friday

I take back everything I said about suspecting Erin and Austin didn't get on. Awww. They're lovely. She babysat for him. How... odd, yet lovely.

Andrew and Ola say their samba will be 'entertaining.' That sounds familliar. I think that's how Erin and Peter described their samba, and we know what happened there.

I'm not going see the Saturday show till Sunday, so I'll post after I've seen both shows. Also, I'm starting nanowrimo tomorrow. Yes I'm insane. I've made a blog here, where you can read snippets, rejoicing and moaning. Probably mostly the latter. Posts will either be plentiful, as in oh god, I can't write anything, distract me! or missing, in which case it is all going well! (Or I have smashed my computer in frustration.)

It Takes Two: Thursday

I really love Cherie and James. I hope they get through this week okay. I didn't like James alot in the previous series, but I've been won over.

Yesterday they said that the Quicksep was 'Erin's dance' which was lovely because I think she's said it's her favourite. Their training looks really good, I'm looking forward to seeing it.

Rachel and Vincent's jive looks like it will be great too, and I've got my fingers crossed for Heather's chacha.

It Takes Two: Tuesday

Jo Caufield used to be the warm-up when we went to recordings of Have I Got News For You. She was ridiculously unfunny then and doesn't appear to have gotten any better. She likes Lisa and Len. That figures.

I really like seeing Anton talk about the choreography, even if he did talk about Andrew and Ola all over Austin and Erin.

Wednesday tomorrow. We can start looking forward to next week instead of seeing endless repeats of last week, hurrah!

It Takes Two: Monday

Arlene 'gets on with Len.' Uh-huh, once more with feeling, Arlene.

Also, hurrah for Craig saying that Len gets a bit 'carried away' when he disagrees with the other judges. So true, although I do believe Craig when he says it doesn't last.

SCD: It Takes Two (Thursday)

A flashback to series 3, as we watch Darren Gough's Paso Doble and Len reminds us what MANLY-MALE-BLOKE he was. *incoherent rage*

It's like when they pretend that men can't do the rumba. Um, hi there Colin, were you on our show? Apparently not. Wait for it, it'll happen.


In happier news Erin turned up! Whenever they show clips of Austin, Erin is oddly absent. Part of me thinks that they don't get on and so whenever they are not dancing they are on opposite sides of the room, not talking. This is probably not true.

Strictly Come Dancing: Week 5 and Results

... but first an ITT sidenote:

Len has denied rumors that he isn't coming back next year. Hmmph. So much for my cunning plan. No mention of what Brucie might be doing though, so fingers crossed.

Marian Keyes is quite annoying, but I liked Lilia alot more for running out and hugging her and then suggesting they get married. Oh, so easily swayed by the gay. Isn't that annoying?

I liked that Erin was mostly amused that she Anton, Ian and Camilla were going to be doing "fluff" behind Darcy Bussell. "Attempting to do ballet" near Darcy Bussell. I'm quite amused too. Alos, I do want to see Darcy and Katherine Jenkins DVD now. It sounds great, and also they wore shirts.


Onwards!

Strictly Come Dancing: Week 5 and Results

Rachel & Vincent
I forgotten to mention them in last weeks post, but this week I was impressed by their samba. Fun and bouncy,and I completely agreed with the judges scores. Also, Rachel had the best dress.

Lisa & Brendon
I didn't like this much at all. They spent a suspicious amount of time in hold, or close to hold, and it didn't feel particularly smooth, especially compared to later dances. It was perfectly fine, but I didn't get the judges raving about it at all. They didn't deserve to be top, showing the clips next to Tom and Cherie really proved that to me.

Heather & Brian
Oh dear. She looked terrified and panicked and oh. In training she always looks like it's coming together, but I think nerves get the better of her every time. I thought she'd be in the bottom two, partly because she was dreadful and also she was in that lower-middle danger zone.

Cherie & James
Oh, that was lovely. Elegant and simple, but very lovely. I am warming to James more and more. I didn't agree with Craig,though I could see wht he meant. Hmm. The final lift was incredible, I don't know how they made it look so elegant. I think the marks they got were right (even allowing for Craig's 7!) but Lisa was overmnarked, so they were the wrong way around on the board.

Mark & Hayley
Distractng outfit? Oh dear. Never a good start. He's learnt how to smile, (thank you John Barrowman) but it hasn't help his dancing. Apparently he wasn't just holding back - he really has no talent. Next week it'll be Props. Hats, chairs and things. Themed dances. I'm afraid. He should have been in the bottom two.

Dom & Lilia
A bit dull, but perfectly fine. Much like Lisa and Brendan's dance, actually. He was very very tense, I wondered if having a lift earlier in the dance might have calmedhis nerves,as he seemed so worried about them in the training clips. Throughly middle of the board standard. I didn't expect them to be in the bottom two, but, well. *is annoyed with British public again*

Erin & Austin
I'm always amazed at how comfortable Austin looks on the dancefloor. His smile never seems forced, like alot of the celebrities and he always seems to be havng a good time, rather that trying to 'perform' to the audience. Even though this is not his best dances, and I don't think it was even the most exciting or entertaining samba, I really like him and Erin.

What was up with Erin's costume though? The skirt I could let go, given that it's a samba, but the weird shoulder-scarf thing? It's an odd look.

Andrew & Ola
I don't even remember this. Was it dull? Was he awful? I suspect so.

Christine & Matthew
I think I might have liked this one more than Austin's. It was great fun.

Jodie & Ian
Oh. Well. What a suprise! Lovely, elegant, smooth, ... etc. Throughly deserved the praise from the judges, but I'm not sure it's going to last. If she has the V. Waltz she'll probably get by, but the paso ... don't know.

John & Kristina
Oh, bless his soul. Excellent choice of song, slightly gimicky choreography, very little in the wayof dance steps, and yet I loved it and I loved John and I loved Kristina. (Though his comment that 'the public wll save us' was a little smug-sounding.) I loved that Kristina was more excited that John when they went through. I think he's a bit baffled by the whole thing, to be honest.

Tom & Camilla
Did you know that he is getting married on Sunday? And that this is his stag night? DID YOU? He's getting MARRIED. Any minute now. MARRIED.

That said, I loved his dance. It felt very much like an old American movie.

I also love that Camilla will smile widely on though any lift, no matter how close it is to going completely wrong. (Trouser-dress! Wear proper trousers or just don't bother, I say. My mum claims it is very 30s, and so very appropriate and blahblahblah.)

Results!

I'm shocked that Dom and Lilia went, though between them and Heather it was pretty even. I would have chosen Heather to go myself. I've really warmed up to Lilia over the past few weeks, it turns out.



Now, I am about to brave the cold dark world to try a dance class. I haven't been for over a year and this is someplace new... we'll see how it goes.

It Takes Two : Tuesday

An approximation of an earlier conversation.
Fellow-Strictly-Watcher : I really like Hayley
Me : Oh, I don't! She and Mark are so dull!
FSW : I'm suprised you don't like Hayley. She's so pretty!
M : Perhaps I am not as shallow as everyone thinks! ... also she's blonde.


Last week I was wondering why no one had informed poor-new-girl-Hayley of the Acting Coach Technique for improving performance. Apparently she already knew though. I couldn't work out if they had had an acting coach in, were going to get one in, or if Hayley had gone one step further and enrolled Mark onto some sort of month-long course.

Seriously, when I become a strictly pro dancer, (that BBC call is going to come any day now, I'm sure!) there are three things that I would do in the first week.

1. Acting lesson(s)
2. Ballet lessons
3. Make them watch past highly scoring dances on the show and good examples of the dances for the pro world, so they knew what on earth the dance was supposed to look like. (For example, how much headbanging a traditional tango has in it, to pull an example out of this air...)



I'm very glad to see Erin on the show. Previous years' ITT have often been missing Erin, presumably a combination of her having the highest number of hours training and having celebs that live far away. (Willie - Scotland, Peter - Manchester, Colin - Cardiff) This year she doesn't seem to be high up the training hours table - I suppose Austin's injuries make it tricky - and I wonder if she finally got a Londoner. Long may it continue, I say.



It was nice to Anton again, though I find Flavia most of what Flavia says to be a)agreeing with whoever else just spoke, b)something we were all very clear about anyway, or c)not at all interesting. Am I just biased? I was sad that it wasn't an Anton&Karen panel, I like Karen much more and she has very clear and often controversial/differing opinions about thing. Fingers crossed she turns up on Craig's mid-week report.


(Does anyone know why blogger refuses to allow me to remain signed in, no matter how many times I click the 'remember me' button? I don't think it's a cookies issue, plenty of other sites remember me.)

Strictly Come Dancing: Week Three and Results

I have returned! I am also offically another year older.

Comments will be short. My memory is poor.

Austin and Erin
Apparently he wasn't all that bothered by his bad back. If that's him dancing with a bad back, I hope it heals quickly - he'll be professional by Christmas. Awesome.

Tom and Camilla
Very fun, nearly as good as Austin, but not quite. I can't decide if I love or hate the Austin/Tom rivally stuff; at the moment it's quite fun and sweet, but I imagine it will soon get irritating.

John and Kristina
He didn't really get the seriousness of the tango, but I agree with Bruno, that he sold the dance anyway. I'm glad the public voted for him: I'm predicting he'll make it to the quarter-finals, then go home as the public starts to swing more for good dancers rather than adorableness and entertainment.

Gary and Karen
Oh, so glad he went home. He was marginally better - his steps were smaller! I felt awful for them when he went completely wrong in the dance off, and I'm sad he didn't get a chance to do ballroom, but I think it's good that his not hanging on in for weeks ala-Kate Garraway. He was saved by the public in the first week, which was nice, but I'm glad he's gone. Hopefully Karen will turn up to give Opinions, which I always enjoy. :)

Mark and Hayley
How does he manage to be so dull? I'm sure it was technically alright but oh god, the bordem. I don't care about this couple. I'm glad they were in the bottom two, though I think they were the right couple to save, because it means people aren't voting for them and they might go home soon.

Andrew and Ola
Headbanging.

Headbanging.

I can't get past that. I'm all for experimentation and interesting music and stuff, but mostly that only works if you can dance. Otherwise it's just.... well. Andrew and Ola. Why weren't they in the bottom two? Who the hell is voting for them? I think they should go home next week.

Don and Lilia
I wasn't entirely convinced by his Tango-face, but the dance was quite good. I didn't like Lilia's dress. *is petty*


The girls' group dance was brilliant. It really showed that the level of ability with the girls is much higher than the boys. It's a shame that we have to get rid of another girl next week instead of, for example, Andrew and Ola.

I loved Anton and Erin's dance in the final, though Fellow-Strictly-Watcher, upon my return exclaimed 'why didn't they do a quickstep, the girls are doing a quickstep next week, Anton and Erin could have done us a beautiful quickstep and they didn't.' Which is a fair point: I love love love Anton and Erin's quickstep, and it was the dance that inspired me to start dancing myself, back in season 4.

The rumba was good, but no Ian and Camilla? THe new (younger!) dancers are very bendy.

Flavia and Vincent did a lovely dance, that occasionally slipped into contempory type dancing, what will all that rolling about on the floor. I also am a bit cynical, and can't help but feel it's a way of getting past the ugliness of the Matt-Flavia-Vincent nightmare of last year, the way they made Vincent and Flavia do a beautiful dance in the middle of it.

SCD: It Takes Two

Some random comments from Monday and Tuesday.

- I'm not a fan of this new magic button they BBC have found for their recaps. You know, the one that makes people go reallyfast and then s l o w r i g h t d o w n. . . .

It's a bit odd. As is the glowing rays of light eminating from variouos people they've decided to go with.

- I hadn't quite twigged until Saturday that we were having another two weeks of separate boys/girls competition. It doesn't seem very fair as there are a number of boys who are considerably worse than any of the girls, the bottom group of which are all at much the same level.


... that's about it. I'm away from tomorrow until next Monday. I maybe will have internet access to post about Strictly, but I might not. I do get to watch the dancing with my mum and my gran though, which will be fun.

SCD : It Takes Two (Monday&Tuesday)

Monday

- New hair. New ceiling. Longer credits. It Takes Two is back!

- The new ceiling makes me want to duck.

- Aleeeeeeeshaaaaa! And Matthew! Adorableness.

- Blah Len, blah. I think Craig can give ones out IF HE WANTS TO. If you can't give them out, why do they exist? Pah. PAH.

- What was Claudia wearing? She looked very very thin. It was all a bit odd.

- They proved Erin was the best teacher with numberical proof. PROOF.

- No clips? Whatwhatwhat? Clips are the only time we get to see Erin!


Tuesday

- Much better clothing today Claudia.

- The new ceiling still makes me want to duck everytime we see it.

- John Sergant is the most adorable thing that ever lived.

- Training clips! Oh, why aren't people allowed to dance in jeans and t-shirts. It is clearly the best thing ever.

- Erin! Laughing and smiling and dancing.

- The comedians were good and made me laugh lots, though I can't remember entirely at what. "Len - 6, which means 2." Yes, so true! I love it when Claudia's guests recognise the travesty of Len's scoring system. Remember John Barrowman? He turned out to be great last year.

- Clips! Oh, Erin! Playing? In training? What happened?! Awwwww.


In conclusion: Love Erin. Love Claudia. Hate Len. Good.